The Reliability Trap and the Hidden Cost of Depending on One Great Employee
This week, I had the same conversation with two leaders in very different fields, at different times, on different days.
One was a manager running a small team in public health, and the other was a professional who supported business owners in developing systems to improve their operations. Both referred to the running joke in just about every organization that the reward for being great at your work is more work.
One pointed out the poor, overworked Operations person and relieving their stress, and the other lamented the upcoming vacation time of “the only person in that department that could get anything done.”
We call those team members whose default setting is “Exemplary Success” high performers. Lifesavers. Pillars. The backbone of the team.
I call them something else – single points of failure.
A single point of failure (SPOF) is a part of a system that would cause the whole system to crash if it were to fail. That means there’s no backup solution that would allow the system to function without it.
Obviously, no one builds a team with the goal of making one person that critical failure point. It’s a process that happens over time when someone proves to be consistently reliable, supremely competent, and incredibly efficient.
The more reliable they are, the more they become known for their fantastic results. In response to that recognition, they work even harder.
More work in diverse areas finds its way to their desk, because it will definitely get done, excellently.
After a while, the rest of the team becomes busy doing other things, and the high performer is responsible for more and more of the team’s critical results.
Now the manager has become comfortable joking that “you better not leave us.” Vacation requests become less frequent because “it’s not a good time.”
The high performer is still consistently high performing – without breaks, and with less support. The partner that used to help them out has moved to a new team, left the company entirely, or worse, is unavailable due to health issues.
Now the high performer is the team. The last one standing, or at least the only one with enough seniority or experience to keep projects going.
Now that may not literally be the case, but the reality is that the team’s momentum does fall disproportionately on that high performing pillar.
Next thing you know, project deliverables have started drifting past deadlines. But it’s reasonable to give a day or three of grace because the high performing pillar is juggling so much. “They’re so busy!”
The once-cheerful high performer is looking and sounding a little more stressed. The tone of voice is a little more forceful, less friendly and welcoming.
Finally, the high performer calls out because they have the flu. Productivity grinds to a stop because they have all the processes and passwords in their head. They’ve been meaning to document everything, but “they’ve been so busy.”
They’re still not better on the second day. Or the third.
Finally they report that their doctor has prescribed rest – for two weeks. So they’re taking all of their PTO – right now.
You barely hold back the refusal, because you know they need and deserve this time to reset.
You grit your teeth and tell them, “Get well soon.”
You hang up and take a deep breath.
Now what do you do?
What you’re experiencing is what I call the Reliability Trap.
The Reliability Trap doesn’t happen because you set out to burn out your people. It happens because reliability naturally attracts responsibility. Every time someone reliably solves a problem, the organization learns to route more problems to them, for more diverse solutions. That routing becomes dependence. What looks like efficiency quietly becomes fragility.
